It is late morning, and I just finished shooting at the indoor EST 2000 range again. For some reason I have been having trouble lining up the front and rear sight pictures, especially indoors. I was singled out and yelled at by the cadre member in charge of the range. I really do think I'm becoming numb to all the yelling, but there are times when it does get to me. Sometimes I fear that I might snap one of these days and tell somebody to go and **** themselves. I know we all feel like that at times.
It's a good thing that my husband can't see me now, as I'm pretty much beat up. I have a black eye (shiner) from the M-16 hitting my glasses, another black and blue mark on my face, my chin messed up from the kevlar strap rubbing against it, my face and lips are horribly sunburned from being out on the range all day, I have cuts all over my hands, brush burns on my shoulders and legs, and at least 3 or 4 dozen sizeable bruises or black and blue marks all over my legs, torso and arms. I am not feeling very attractive right now.
One of the Drill Sergeants yelled in my ear so loud this morning that it's amazing I did not incur permanent hearing loss. It's the same DS from another platoon that I don't like. There are some Drill Sergeants here who normally yell only when privates are doing something wrong, not just for the sake of yelling or scaring people. I like one of the DSs from another platoon, DS Chalmers. She seems to be the epitome of a military professional. She also doesn't seem to unnecessarily yell nor take delight in verbally flagellating soldiers. She is usually the Drill Sergeant heading up my group ability runs in the morning. I run beside her in the 'C' group, since I am among the shortest females in the company. There is a girl who is 4'6" up in front too, and runs besides me. Whenever I think I am having it too hard during the runs or on a road march, I just think of what that woman is going through, and push myself a little harder.
This morning we did have a run for PT, the first in quite some time. I heard the Drill Sergeants complaing amongst themselves that we've hardly been running at all this cycle. I believe the distance covered was somewhere between 1 1/2 and 2 miles. I am happy to report that I did not fall out of the run. We had a group of about 50 folks running with the 'C' group, and of that number, 13 people fell out. I believe that my cardiovascular fitness has been enhanced since I got here, as the run didn't kick my ass like I thought it would. At this point it's actually my legs that hurt me more than the breathing, which was usually the most difficult part of running for me. I am beginning to think that it will be possible to me to pass the run on our PT test.
...
We just finished with another trip to the Shoppette. It was again the highlight of my week. I purchased more stationary, stamps, a few postcards, two cards, two bags of cough drops, baby wipes, and a few odds and ends.
Tomorrow we are spending another day out at the range. I am hoping to improve. For some reason it seems like I've been having a more difficult time shooting this time around than I did the first time I went through basic training, though I'm not sure why.
On Saturday we will be having some additional hand-to-hand combat training. Should be fun.
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